ZELLA COMPTON: Not one of the staff was up for a lesson in grammar

Zella Compton

COMMENT: All agencies must to held to account for Anne Savidge’s tragic death

Currys PC World seems a good idea until you get there and experience the pain again and again.

I’m not sure why I put myself through it, especially as the staff seem so nice yet so thwarted by their crazy management systems.

How is it that big companies still have the most basic spelling mistakes on signs?

My frustration started with the signs.

How is it that big companies still have the most basic spelling mistakes on signs?

I don’t understand how, when they sell so many laptops and PCs with spellcheckers they still get basic grammar wrong.

‘Whats your story?’ ask the signs. Mine’s about the use of apostrophes.

Although I volunteered to take a Sharpie and correct the rhetorical question above the answer featuring essays and homework, none of the staff was willing to get me one.

There were so many staff on the floor, not only in the Titchfield branch but also at Hedge End where I ended up as the Titchfield one had neither of the laptops I’d chosen (not great management from a company which professes to have the know-how about everything except anything that might help the flow of customers and their experience).

Then there’s the system where more than a handful of shop assistants mill around products but none is allowed to go to the warehouse to get the laptop I wanted.

This meant an extra 20-minute wait on top of an already long day.

The staff are great, I feel for them. Super helpful, but a little – I felt – overwhelmed by the stupidity of the system.

My salesman/boy did his best to entertain me as did his colleagues, but none was up for a spot of grammar correction or rushing the warehouse to demand action.

He did bravely try to sell me the PC World expertise cover forever and ever, but given the recommendations I’ve heard about that from everyone who has tried it, even the offer of a discount couldn’t charm me.

But I did get a bundle of added extras thrown in, only to discover they needed my credit card details online before they activate to make renewing next year easier.

There’s always a catch when it comes to PC World and its great offers.

WE LIVE IN A GLOBAL WORLD SO LET’S HAVE WORLDWIDE COVERAGE

Imagine returning to your home and finding an alligator has taken up residence in the kitchen.

That’s what’s happening in Houston as the flood waters retreat and families are moving back in with their new pets.

Others have found fire ants, joined together to make rafts of pain.

I guess on the bright side they have homes to return to, unlike those displaced in India and Bangladesh where more than 1,000 have died.

The suffering there is extraordinary especially given the lack of coverage our national media gives to those whose lives are blighted, but who are not American or European.

Suffering is suffering, but please, in this global world, let’s have global reporting and a global scale of crisis.

I USE SOCIAL MEDIA FAR TOO MUCH

A Facebook friend mentioned that he’d downloaded an app on to his phone to track his phone usage. Yuck.

But it haunted me for a day and then I decided to try it for myself.

And yes, the results are pretty turgid.

Who knew I wasted so much time?

Well, I had guessed.

My smart phone had wheedled its way into my life so much it’s almost become a fixture in my hand, another appendage.

I like to think a lot of my time is taken reading the news,and looking up bits and pieces for various writing pieces, but the truth is most of it is sucked into social media and keeping up with other people’s lives, instead of living my own.